Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Weekend observations from MTL

We'll confess straight away to not having seen much of the Jays' weekend sweep of the Orioles, as we spent the weekend shopping, drinking, eating, drinking, cavorting, drinking, smoking, drinking, traipsing and drinking our way around Montreal. So you can take this recap for what it is worth.

Seeing is believingWe followed most of the series through our Blackberry, but we were fortunate enough to catch the telecast of the last innings of Saturday's walkoff win. We're not sure that we would have believed that Rod Barajas could score from second on a single if we'd read it on the pitch-by-pitch recap, but there he was, rumbling home to score the winning run at a speed you could have timed with a sundial. That's the kind of season this Jays team is having.

(And as for Aaron Hill, who hit said single: M!V!P! M!V!P! M!V!P!)

Believing the hypeWe live in a world of hyperbole. Frankly, everybody exaggerates about everything all the time. And so with that in mind, we can say this: the smoked meat at Schwartz's Deli absolutely lives up to the advanced billing. We're not sure that we could ever eat an smoked meat sandwich anywhere else after savouring for ourselves how absolutely magnificent the real deal tastes.

And speaking of hype, we're glad to see that Robert Ray, the object of our recent overstated affections, delivered just enough to keep the Jays in Saturday's game. We expect that he'll get another start or two before the cavalry returns, so here's hoping that he can keep his walks down, hold the fort and improve on his first Major League appearance.

Les Expos ne sont plus làHere's an odd observation from the weekend: We saw more Blue Jays caps than Expos caps in Montreal this weekend. We're not saying that our isolated observation is in any way representative of reality, nor are we insinuating that Montreal has somehow embraced the team from Toronto since the departure of their own team.

Still, it seemed odd to see that many Jays casquettes in Montreal, and frankly, it made us sad all over for the way that the 'Spos left town.

More on the Expos-Blue Jays connectionA question for the commenters: Al Oliver was the best player to play for both the Blue Jays and the Expos. Discuss.

Al Oliver was a great player, but I think the premise of the question is silly if we say he's the best player to be both an Expo and Blue Jay... the majority of his career (and his best years) were in Pittsburgh. It's like saying the greatest Expo of all time is Pete Rose.

I just want to point out that the Corned Beef house should never be mentioned in the same sentence as Schwartz. 200-300% better is more like it.

Their smoked meat is rather bland and pretty average in my books. I also find their Corned Beef to be rather lackluster and you can getting a better sandwich at Katz Deli up north on Dufferin near Yorkdale or Pancer's on Bathurst near Wilson.

Been to Schwartz's a few times, even brought back 5 pounds on a plane once. The plane smelled great. But the hands down, not even close, winner is Katz's Deli in NYC. It's in the Lower East Side and was where Meg Ryan gave every guy a boner in When Harry Met Sally. Get the Rueben.

What's your mustard of choice, Tao? I like a reuben with with hot mustard. I might have to pick up some of that on the way home -- although what I can get around here for smoked meat will be a pale comparison.

I too have only recently come back to baseball after being a Long time 'spos fan.

Once they began the folding process i was out of MLB.Dave Van Horne used to talk me to sleep during the summers...... no wonder I'm a wreck. Let's repress that one again.

I hated the Jays when they won their WS's, i had just moved to Brampton from Montreal as a 12 yr old. Though, the Felix Potvin jokes never got old...moving on from the therapy stuff, The Doc and this current core group of players has gotten me back to being an everyday fan, for the most part anyway, that and the fact that they're essentially the only team i can watch regularly on tv.

94' will burn in me loins for life, well that or that thing i should probably get checked out. Anyway, I think at this point I'd cherish a current Blue Jays WS as I would have with the Expos.

Just a weird feeling changing teams. Has anyone had to do this? Maybe you know what I mean and can tell me what soap will scrub this dirty feeling off.

@my good buddy Bruno: I couldn't help but wonder if they were from another crew or if they bought ump uniforms because they have unfulfilled dreams that are too sad to contemplate.

@Tao. Yeah, because of your picture, I bought the ingredients for a reuben, but I skipped the swiss cheese because I wasn't sure. Even though my sandwich was just grocery store fare, I thought it was pretty dang tasty. The one type of Rye bread they sold at the Sobeys near my house was weird though.

What? This is supposed to be a baseball blog? Oh, my bad. Tao, start a food blog!

MY dad is from Australia oddly enough and his favorite sandwich is a Rueben! This is from a guy who ate meat pies and steak and eggs mind you! So I've gained an appreciation for that sandwich beyond belief. NYC has some great ones and some diners do that justice as well in the tri-state area(NJ-NY-Connecticut) as well. Anyway, food is an apropos off topic because of that loss yesterday! Wow whatta tease that was......

I've always liked the Jays, so the transition from my beloved wasn't that hard to make, albeit after a couple of years of mourning. 94 straight up murdered baseball in Montreal, and it's slowly dying in the rest of the province, which is a damn shame.

On another note, Schwartz rules, and to all visitors to our fair city, don't be afraid to explore other areas, Crescent is all right, but Mont-Royal, St-Denis, Prince-Arthur are also worth a look.